Author's Note: I just skipped the other tests and went straight towards the end. I hope that's alright.
Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn
I stare wide-eyed at the man. He looks just like Mukuro. He looks a bit surprised too though. I wonder why? "U-Um…" I start shakily. "E-Excuse me," I finally manage to say. I don't think that I was supposed to see this. I'm not a Guardian after all. I bow slightly. "S-Sorry." I leave the room quickly.
"Wait," I hear him say. I ignore him and continue to walk away quickly. I go back to the kitchen.
"Eh? What happened, Kasumi?" Ken asks.
I shake my head. "N-Nothing…" I reply a bit shakily. "A hybrid between a pineapple and a watermelon just appeared," I mutter under my breath. Ken gives me a weird look and I nod at the door as if to tell him to look himself.
I decide to stick around as Ken looks inside the room and exclaims, "It's a watermelon pineapple hybrid!" Ken! Don't say it out loud! A watermelon followed by a pineapple flies towards Ken and a bonking sound is heard. I stare blankly at Ken for a second before I start to laugh. I go over to him. "Ken, are you alright?" I ask between my laughs.
I couldn't go to sleep last night. I keep feeling the presence of someone else, but when I looked around, no one was there. I pull on my school uniform and throw on my bag before I leave my room. I stop suddenly. Something feels wrong. I glance down the hallway. It's strangely quiet. I walk to Dokuro's room and knock once. Twice. No response. That's weird. "Excuse the intrusion," I say as I push the door open to find an empty room. Did she wake up earlier today? A bit troubled now, I walk to the only other room that she ever visits. I find that she's not there either. "K-Ken! Chikusa!" I shout. Ken and Chikusa run into the room. I never call them like this.
"What is it, Kasumi?!" Ken exclaims as he bursts into the room with Chikusa. It seems like I woke them up. He and Chikusa look like they can tell something is wrong.
"She's not here," I say as calmly as I can manage.
Ken repeats, "'She'?"
I nod. "Dokuro," I say, "Dokuro's not here." Ken's eyes widen and even Chikusa looks a bit troubled. "What… do we do now?" I ask slowly as I try to figure this out. For the first time since Ken and Chikusa were gone, the air feels tense and there's no a sound to be heard from any of us- we're all troubled. I force a faint smile on my face. "Well, we've got no choice but to look for her eventually," I start. "But, let's give it a few days first. Right?"
Chikusa regains his composure before Ken does. "Kasumi's right."
"Y-Yeah," Ken agrees.
What do I do? What do I do? Dokuro! What's going on? I comb my hand through my hair in frustration and let out a quiet sigh. "Kasumi," Hibari says. I stop walking and look at Hibari. "You're going to walk into a wall," he says in a straight-forward manner.
"Huh?" I ask I look around and my eyes widen as I see the wall right in front of my face. "T-Thanks…" I reply weakly as I step to the side. Shoot! I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn't realize! Hibari changes direction suddenly. It's not the usual route that he takes. "Where are we going?" I ask.
"Your classroom," he replies. We get to my classroom and he looks at me before turning away. "Just go to class."
I look at his back. "Thanks, Hibari-san," I say quietly. I walk into the classroom.
"Sato-san? Don't you usually come to class a bit later?" Sawada asks.
I nod. "Yeah."
He looks at me. "Did something happen?" He must be able to tell that something's up.
"No. It's nothing," I reply as I go my seat. I close my eyes. Mukuro-sama? Are you around?
Mukuro replies pretty quickly. "I'm always by your side."
I smile a little to myself. That's good to hear.
He must feel that something's wrong too, because he sounds a bit concerned. "What's the matter, Kasumi? You don't usually call for me."
Oh, did you miss it? You were wandering again, right?
"I don't know what you're talking about, so I guess that I did miss it."
I see. Then, I guess I'll have to be the messenger of bad news. I pause. Dokuro went missing today, Mukuro-sama. Do you know where she went? There's silence and I know that he doesn't know. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened… I…I was hoping that it was nothing to be worried about, but it doesn't seem like it. Another thought occurs to me. Mukuro-sama?
"Yes?"
Last night…did you happen to wandering around Kokuyo Land?
"No," he replies. "Why do you ask?"
I-It's nothing. It must have been my imagination… I thought that I felt a presence around all of last night… Sorry for bothering you.
"I'm not going anywhere, my cute little Kasumi. I'll keep watch for you tonight," he replies. "I should go now though. Be careful…"
Yeah… Thank you. I open my eyes again and find that class is about to start.
Several days have passed and Dokuro still hasn't returned yet. I'm starting to get anxious. It bothers me. "Hey, Kasumi," Reborn says. He jumps up onto my desk after classes end.
"Hm?" I ask as I look back at him.
"I'd like to request your assistance."
"Depends," I say. "What do I have to do?"
He replies, "There's no option for you. Just go and convince Hibari to take the succession trial. Skull is useless." He smirks. "In return, I'll have Tsuna go around and help you with your problem with Chrome."
I frown. "That's a one-sided deal. Sawada-san will get involved again no matter what," I reply. I sigh. "But… I'll go anyhow, seeing as you'll probably find a way to force Sawada-san into staying out of the situation." I get up and start to look around for Hibari. I hate helping out like this. I walk to the reception room to find that Hibari isn't there. The only other place I would really guess would be the roof, so I head there.
When I get to the roof, I feel a presence and I look over by the gate. I was right about the presence, because a man wearing a trench coat who looks a lot like Hibari appears. The difference is that this man has blonde hair and icy blue eyes. "You're Alaude, aren't you?" I ask. I'd assume that he would be the model of the way a Cloud Guardian should be, seeing as it was based on his personality. I figure that he won't like to be grouped together with the rest of the first-generation family then.
"Hm," he says. He looks to the side. It's just as I expected then.
"Is there something you needed?" I ask. He doesn't seem like the type to talk to anyone just for the sake of it.
He looks back at me as though he didn't expect to be asked and he seems to smile a little. "You really are just like her."
I feel my eyes widen a little. "'Her'?" I ask quietly. It's already too late when I realize that I said it out-loud. Vongola the First… Daemon Spade… and Alaude… They all look at me as though they've seen me before. Or rather…some who I look like?
"You should be careful," Alaude says.
I look at him blankly as he already starts to disappear into the Cloud Flames. "Eh?" Before I can really do anything else, he's gone. I stand there for a little while longer with a blank expression before I finally walk back into the school. I should be careful, huh? I turn back to look at where Alaude was and I still feel a faint presence there. I smile a little for some reason. "Thanks."
I sigh as I walk down the halls by myself. I pick my bag up and put it over my shoulder before starting to walk home. Reborn isn't going to make sure that I got his request done. Though, I'm not sure if I'll have to face the consequences later, I tried my best to find Hibari with no avail. There's too much that's been going on. It's just one big headache waiting to happen. To be honest, I'm no good with this kind of thing. Interacting with others like this.
I see someone walking down the hall and realize that it must be Hibari. I walk over to him. "Can I join you?" I ask. He nods and I smile at him. "It must have been a pain. Dealing with them all," I say. "I'm not here to convince you to take the succession trial. I was sent here to do that, but I don't want to." I smile a bit and ask, "Has any paperwork piled up while I was a bit distracted?"
"No, the Vice Chairman took care of it all," he replies.
"Oh, Kusakabe-san did? I guess I should thank him tomorrow," I say. "Sorry for causing you trouble the other day, Hibari-san." Dokuro still hasn't come back yet, but is it okay for me to try and remain calm like this?
I look blankly at the Sun Guardian as he approaches us. "Oh, I found you!" he exclaims. For some reason, he looks really fired up about something. "You aren't getting away, Hibari!" He says with a swing of his fist.
"I'm busy. I don't have time to deal with you," Hibari replies bluntly. Hibari turns around abruptly and starts to walk away, so I follow him without a word. I wonder… Should I leave?
"Hey, Hibari! You're not going to listen?" the Sun Guardian shouts. How persistent. "Wait, Hibari!"
"If it's alright with you, I think that I should go…" I say to Hibari. He nods. He's starting to look at bit annoyed already. "Then, I'll see you tomorrow morning." I start to walk to the front alone as the Sun Guardian continues to pester Hibari. I feel kind of bad leaving like this, but I don't want to stay either.
As I walk to the front gate from the back of the school, I hear explosions. I look up and don't really see anything. Weird. I start to wonder if the Storm Guardian got mad again. I shake my head and continue to walk to the front. I guess there's not much to be worried about. There explosions almost every day from that guy. I see Miura and Sasagawa looking paralyzed with Lambo and I-Pin in their arms. I turn around quickly and see that there are two missiles heading in our general direction. One at them and one at me. What do I do? They're too close together. If it was just me I could run, but they're here too. I can't protect them either because the missiles are too close together. My heart starts to pound quickly and I can't hear anything other than that. What do I do? I pull out my scythe and run in front of them. I know that I can't run on my own, so I guess that if this is the only choice, then I'll do it. I close my eyes to brace myself for the impact as I try to from a barrier with my mist flames.
I hear the explosion, but the pain never follows. I open my eyes and look around. "What happened?" Miura asks. I look in front of me and I smile at the hedgehog.
"A hedgehog?" Sasagawa asks.
I smile a little more. "Roll?" I sigh quietly as I rest my scythe on my shoulders. Thanks, Hibari-san.
I watch from the side as the Sun and Cloud Guardians for the First appear. I look at Alaude as he starts to speak. "Cloud Guardian for Vongola the Tenth, Hibari, Kyoya," he starts. "An aloof cloud that guards the Family independently. You were able to refrain from fraternizing with the Family, while adapting to the situation and protecting these people," he looks at Miura and the others, "and her." I look back at him as he glances at me. I nod. "I laud you for your wise judgment."
"Huh?" Sawada asks, "That means…"
"I deem you worthy of the Cloud Ring's inheritance," Alaude finishes.
Hibari says, "More importantly…" He pulls out his tonfas. "Will you fight me?"
Sawada shouts out in panic. "H-Hibari-san!" I laugh quietly to myself.
"He's exactly like you used to be," Knuckle, the First's Sun Guardian, comments. Alaude doesn't reply. I smile to myself as I turn around and leave unnoticed. I guess things turned out fine. Reborn orchestrated it all very well.
I stare blankly at Dokuro. She's crying her heart out, and all I can do is stare back at her blankly. I don't know what to do in situations like this. "Ken, Chikusa, I'm counting on you. There's something I should take care of," I say. I take a cookie from Ken. "Thanks." I start to walk out of the room.
"Kasumi! Aren't you supposed to handle this? You're the girl!" Ken shouts.
"I am," I reply. "Just wait." I walk out to a pay phone and dial Sawada's number. "Sorry for bothering you so late. There's something that I think you should handle with the others. It's about Dokuro."
"Huh? Chrome?" Sawada asks. "O-Oh! Of course we'll help."
"Thanks. Yeah, she's back, but…" I start. I shake my head. "I'll just leave that to you tomorrow. See you." I hang up. I turn around. "I know that you have something to do with this, but I don't think I can do anything about it. Could you please stop following me around all the time though? Daemon Spade-san," I say. "Or at least just speak to me normally or something. It's a bit uncomfortable feeling you presence all the time."
I watch as Daemon Spade reveals himself. He's a bit closer than I expected. He smirks. "Are you happy now?"
I nod and smile faintly. "Thank you." His eyes widen a little. "Is it that I look like someone you knew?" I ask. I wonder why I keep asking people such direct questions. Doesn't that make it easier for people to lie?
He responds a bit strangely. He smirks again, but somehow, it looks forced. "There's somewhere I should go. Well then, excuse me." He disappears. I don't feel his presence anymore. He ran away…? I start to walk back home.
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